Aberdeen 2-3 Rangers: “The faith of the Ibrox side is paramount in the amazing final”
Aberdeen 2-3 Rangers: “The faith of the Ibrox side is paramount in the amazing final”
#Aberdeen #Rangers #faith #Ibrox #side #paramount #amazing #final Welcome to InNewCL, here is the new story we have for you today:
Click Me To View Restricted Videos
Scott Arfield was part of a four-time substitution by Michael Beale just before the hour mark
Just as the post-mortems for Rangers’ title prospects were being written, just as Celtic were about to be declared champions once again by the court of public opinion – including most Rangers fans, you suspect – Scott Arfield tore up the script and swallowed it whole.
Two late, late – and we should stress this – late goals turned an almost certain defeat into an impossible victory.
Arfield came off the bench and was an unrelenting threat. Even before his goals he had chances. Before he turned his head on Aberdeen and its stellar operators – particularly the stellar Connor Barron – he duly warned them that he might think of something.
It was like Houdini. The big man used to explain what he would do. He was to be chained, handcuffed and thrown into a water tank sealed with reinforced steel – and then he would break free. Nobody bought it in the beginning, but Harry always delivered.
Nobody probably believed that Rangers would pull off their own act of escapology, but they did. Credit Arfield’s fierce determination, Credit Rangers’ confidence amid almost overwhelming evidence they weren’t going to save themselves.
If you’re an Aberdeen fan in pain, you’ll end up talking about their defense. It was painful. Deeper and deeper, more desperate by the minute, more nervous by the second. You’ve put so much into it, but a match lasts as long as it lasts, not as long as you’d like it to last. They did it, but what drama, what an amazing endgame.
We were all ready to declare this league a done deal. No points for Rangers and another three for Celtic on Wednesday would extend their lead over Everestian by 12 points. Without a bubonic plague sweeping over Lennoxtown, knocking out Callum McGregor and half his team-mates, it would have been impossible to see Celtic not comfortably winning it from there.
Sport is full of surprises, of course. Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson 40-1. Norton’s Coin won the Cheltenham Gold Cup 100-1. Leicester won the Premier League 5,000-1. The prospect of Celtic’s legs walking out from under them and crashing to the ground with victory in sight like some kind of footballing Devon hole is something even Mystic Meg couldn’t predict.
“One Celtic win on Wednesday and this league is over.” Enter Arfield. Delete, delete, delete.
‘Rangers’ just survive one exciting night’
Michael Beale has had quite an old baptism as a Rangers manager. A 2-1 deficit against Hibs but the win was dug out. A 2-1 deficit against Aberdeen much later in the game, but again the character of his side decided. Not the ability, but the courage. He gave the performance a five out of ten, and that was fair enough.
For the sake of his heart, he’s hoping for a little more routine in the future. The mental toughness in his team is clear, but it’s not a good idea to constantly test it. The man will be old before his time if things go on like this.
You had to sympathize with Jim Goodwin. Figuratively speaking, since Saturday he has spent every waking hour being slapped in the face with a North Sea paddy. Since the non-performance against Celtic, the Aberdeen manager has found himself in the limelight normally reserved for a suspected criminal who is being questioned.
His response to the flak that landed on the back of the soft display three days ago was as emphatic as they come. For anxious weekend read thunderous. Read from powder puff, powder keg.
Not only did they take the lead from behind, but they did it, scoring two majestic goals that would not have looked out of place on Qatar’s glamorous fields over the past month. Not only did they turn their stadium into a riot of merry and goading noise, they seemed to have landed a knockout punch on any Rangers hopes of fist-chasing Celtic in the league.
We suspected the verbal kicks experienced by Goodwin and his players on Saturday would evoke a reaction, but maybe not that kind of reaction.
When Aberdeen announced their starting line-up about an hour before kick-off, the reaction was quite excited. Jayden Richardson was back with the team for the first time since early November and a 2-1 loss to Livingston. “Disaster class arriving,” one fan wrote on social media in anticipation of what Ryan Kent might do to the young full-back at Rangers’ bottom left. Not so.
Richardson was effective, Barron was outstanding, Duk was great during his time on the pitch, leveling with a sensational free-kick and Leighton Clarkson putting them ahead with another pearl player.
As time ran out, the Rangers’ exertion and desperation was great, but each attack met resistance from the red wall. Then that wall started losing a brick or two. When Arfield lined it up, that seemed to be it. A blow to Rangers’ title chances, for sure. A bad result for a team that needs to win and win and win again. And then hope against hope.
We were seven minutes into stoppage time when the winner came on in terms of World Cup-style overtime. The reaction was the wonder of football in microcosm, the dual emotions of one team celebrating madly and another team collapsing in weary disbelief.
Beale was a happy man, but not ecstatically happy. After the mess, he praised his players for their spirit but blamed them for their lack of quality. You just survived. The title is still alive, only. The thrill of the night? Just wonderful.
